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Saw marks Indication

01-03-2002, 01:07 PM

Hey guys. I've worked hard with my saw and purchased a new blade to get rid of the saw marks I was seeing. After aligning the fence and splitter and installing a Forrest WWII saw blade I get very light marks down the workpeice at the bottom. The marks are consistent down the length of the cut at on the bottom half. What does this indicate about my setup? The marks are very light, but I want my saw to work as good as possible.

This is tricky without pictures. I will assume you have the typical fence on right setup.

Looking at the ripped edge, saw marks like:
\\\\\\ indicate the fence is out at back.
////// indicate the fence is in at back (the worse condition).
XXXXXX indicates the blade has a bad tooth or teeth that are marking both infeed or outfeed sides.

If marking was worse on the infeed end on long pieces only, indicates a bent fence.

Not sure what to make of it only marking the lower half of the cut. You may want to try a blade stabilizer, assuming it is a thin-kerf blade.

Dave

Comment

Thanks for the reply. I am using a 5" stabilizer with the blade. I am using the typical fence to the right setup and the marks I believe are \\\\ on the bottom. I will double check the fence again. It is consistant in anything I cut. They are very light like I said, but I'm trying to get it as good as possible. Always willing to tweak a little.

Comment

Ok guys I fixed the problem I described earlier and another problem I discovered. I was having problem with burning on some 1" thick cherry as well as the marks on the bottom of the workpeice. I didn't even see this with the original blade. Here is what I found.

I went through the normal procedure. I made sure the blade was parallel with the miter slot using a square as shown in the manual. I set the fence parallel to the miter same miter slot and adjusted the splitter. I was still getting the marks and now burning. I pulled out my digital calipers I have from work and removed the base plate so I could pinch the inside of the miter slot and the blade. I found that my blade was over 20 thousands closed towards the miter slot. I couldn't see this with the square. After about an hour and half adjusting it I ran the same peice of wood thru again. The cut was perfect. No burn marks or saw marks at all. I held the peice up to a light at an angle and still saw no marks. The cut was glue up quality from my TS2400. Not bad for a portable saw. It just goes to show that measurement are everything. You could have a top quality cabinet saw and get poor results with a poor setup.

Lessons learned:
Don't get cheap when it comes to measuring. Pay the price ang get the precision required. I am lucky to have a very precise set of measuring instruments at work I was able to bring home. I've had to change every adjustment on my saw from the factory setup.

Thanks for the help guys,

John

ps. Just to pat Ridgid on the back. I just bought a TP1300 planer and measured the precision of the factor setup. It was dead on. The thickness was consistent within my measuring accuracy.